Prince George mayor and council, I am writing to you because you are seeking input on the question of “illegal camping” and “open drug use.” I have already sent an email signaling my support for a bylaw making these acts illegal, but given the binary nature of these responses, I did not include any context or caveats. Thankfully, there is ample room within this document to explain my support.
We are in a crisis - inaction is not an option. Across British Columbia, addiction to lethal drugs as well as the elimination of dedicated facilities for the mentally ill, all while housing costs soared and wages stagnated, has resulted in an emergency in every metropolis, city, and town. The answer of the provincial government has been to decriminalize hard drug use through an order in council, while making lots of announcements about socialized housing. This has failed.
Addiction is far more complicated than most of us are willing to admit. But self-harm has never been condoned by our society. And the self-harm of hard drug use has truly catastrophic side-effects: drug dealers and foreign suppliers profit from death and destruction; private property is stolen and businesses vandalized by addicts looking for a fix; and violence, resulting in the death of the innocent, is perpetrated by individuals without the real capacity to stand trial.
In short, our society has descended into chaos, tempting many to take enforcement into their own hands with respect to property theft and trespassing. If elected officials continue to simply wring their hands and fret without delivering solutions and concrete action, there is no doubt that violence will eventually ensue, as it already has in some quarters. The time to act was long ago, but the only thing worse than making a mistake is failing to learn from that event.
We have plenty of tools at hand. There is a recovery centre at Baldy Hughes. All it needs is more staff and portables. Within Prince George, local police need to know that they have the enforcement resources to put a stop to illegal camping and open drug use, while hunting down or flipping dealers and suppliers until the source is cut off. Recovery must be offered to every displaced person downtown and treatment must become a default judgment from the bench.
Bleeding hearts are welcome to send me to the gallows they banned last century. But if I am cancelled, let my moral and intellectual superiors instruct us in the research or value systems that declare leaving our fellow humans to rot on the street is perfectly fine. We have a duty to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are the most marginalized and carrying with them unimaginable trauma. They deserve our help, not our indifference which spells certain death.
Believe it or not, there are plenty of people like myself that know this cannot go on and that recovery is intertwined with enforcement. We are gathering to demonstrate that there is popular support for comprehensive and immediate solutions to the crisis that faces our town and province. On April 27, at noon we will gather on the walkway between Treasure Cove Casino and School District 57 headquarters to declare that “Enough is Enough!” in solidarity with hundreds of our fellow British Columbians.
I cordially invite city council to come speak to us during this event. Good things come to those who communicate, and this continental emergency requires open, frank discussion to achieve solutions and action. We appreciate that there will be challenges as well as unforeseen consequences. Such is to be expected from a large-scale, corrective operation within a society that has essentially lost its faith in political action or change for the better.
But if COVID-19, disruptive political discourse, and even the toxic drug crisis has taught us anything, particularly about people and leadership, it is that the true pandemic of our times is cowardice. Yes, we might try and fail. But to do nothing out of fear is a far more damning choice.
Nathan Giede is a Prince George writer.
